Elysium
by TheEternalSinner
Summary: When GLaDOS starts to lament her own lonely existence she reasons that returning the cause of everything back to her facility may give her purpose again. Taking drastic measures she makes sure she'll do things better this time. AndroidGLaDOS and Chell.
1. Chapter 1: Perspective

_00_

_Prologue: Perspective_

XxXxX

She swore it was the neurotoxin that had somehow managed to sneak its way into her circuits and affected her ability to think rational causing her to come up with this ridiculous plan, even though it shouldn't be scientifically possible.

The stuff often had a similar effect on humans, before it killed them of course. They always seemed to scream and move around franticly in no particular pattern until the toxins eventually got to the more vital parts of their bodies. She could think up hundreds of actions that would be more effective, from the human point of vision, in such a situation which would be more likely to increase their chances of survival. Didn't they know screaming only made them breath faster? And humans were supposed to be known for their remarkable survival instinct. Completely idiotic was what it should be called. Even the moron's had been slightly more effective. Slightly.

Although…She let her mind wander a bit, one could argue that what she was about to do could also be described as 'idiotic', and it didn't seem too benevolent for her own chances for survival either.

Well, then why was she about to do it?

She had come up with tons of different answers, and all of them had been easily dismembered by her strong forms of logic, which she'd love to surround herself with. Sadly it wasn't aiding her this time, quite the contrary actually, since it was telling her to stop with what she was about to do. She had ran the most strong algorithmic reasoning programs she had, trying to find the tiniest flaw in her program that caused this difference in her logic and wishes, something which was unique and new to her, but she hadn't been able to find any significant flaws and everything indicated that it _wasn__'__t,_ in fact, a good plan.

She wasn't about to listen though, to hell with logic. Oh how far she had sunken. Silently the fall from her once omnipotent pedestal was lamented.

She admitted that by now was pretty desperate. By now the only line of reason being followed was that she just really wanted it, and in here her will was the law. After carefully weighing the odds she had reached the conclusion that, if things were to go wrong, she wouldn't lose much anyway.

Except her own life.

But that was the sad part, really. Nowadays her own life didn't hold any great value or importance anymore. Days were spend waiting for the next, filling up the slowly creeping time ordering Blue and Orange around. Amusing herself with making them do silly pretend science. Because that was all it was when she was testing them, it wasn't real, no qualified results, nothing. With the current state of affairs she wasn't much use to anyone, not to science, not to Aperture and definitely not to herself.

And that was why she was doing this, this ridiculous plan that didn't make any sense, this plan that made her sensors scream at her like her cores never could. And still she was going to do it. It had already been set in motion. All she had to do for now was to wait for Blue and Orange to return with what they had been ordered to retrieve.

Then she had to check if there were still vital life signs, else her plan would have ended even before it had begun, something she didn't want to think about.

Then she had to make sure her object of interest wasn't too royally pissed off, otherwise her chances of survival would be even paler. And while she had decided that she would pull through with the plan no matter what, she still held the rationality to at least make the outcome as favorable as possible. She was desperate, not suicidal.

There was not much more she could do besides that. She had done her share, now the rest was up to the girl.

And judging by the vague audible signs of tumult she was currently registering at one of the entrances she and her escort's had almost arrived. She felt nerves start to rise within her, once again she realized the danger she was putting herself in. But it would be worth it, it was already worth it for she could slowly feel the crippling feelings of loneliness and meaningless begin to lift. Little by little the suffocating fears pressing down on her were starting to lessen. She had never realized how… utterly useless everything could be without an immediate goal or threat related to it. Only that girl could do things like this, only that girl could put her in danger and make her feel better about it.

She was going to be absolutely clear about how that was the girls fault too.

If _she_had never showed up and decided to have her episode and if _she_hadn't made her beloved facility gone haywire she herself would have never experienced all of those horrible useless feelings. Everything would be how it was before, perfectly fine. She'd still be testing blissfully ignorant of such events and the darkest thing in her memory would still be the testing withdrawal she went through in her early days, which were now dwarfed by more recent experiences. All of which were related to the girl, of course.

Selfish, dangerous, mute, ugly and fat lunatic who ruined her and her _whole_facility without any hints of remorse, only doing it for her own egoistic wishes. While she on the other hand had been working from a completely altruistic point of view, in the name of science. Something at the back of her mind tugged at her, letting her know that it didn't agree with some parts of that reasoning, probably the fragments of Caroline not knowing their place, but she tried very hard to ignore them. She had heard enough voices in her head for a lifetime. Her own lifetime that is, not the pathetically short lifespans of humans.

"You _CAN__'__T_do this!"

Great, another voice telling her what to do, now she had something else to purge besides the never ending 'subtle pushes in the right direction' from Caroline, as the unwanted abomination so affectionately called it. She really couldn't have this with the girl standing at her doorsteps. Maybe if it was just an error in her coding and she was quick…She'd have to start by localizing the source in her system.

And that was when she realized it.

The source wasn't traced back to an error, it traced towards her microphone application. From there it didn't take out to find the origin of the voice. For the first time in a while she booted up her own vocalizer and pretended the wavering in the sound was because of the absence of need for it.

"Hello, _Chell__"_

"_What!__"_

"I see you have finally found your voice"

She decided to ignore the fact that it sounded more hateful than any of her vocalizers could ever fabricate and suddenly she felt her confidence dim, her desperation taken over by fear.

Had she made a mistake?

XxXxX

Sooo tell me what you think:) I need a bit of reassurance. Obviously this was more of an intro, but I love vocalizing GLaDOS's thoughts and in this fic she won't be staying like that for long so I took the opportunity.

I know there are quite a few fics out there like this but I wanted to give it a try, and I want to do it a bit different than the other fics I've read so far. I'll continue my other story I promise but I'm a bit stuck and wrote myself into a trap(yay) and I'm generally busy.

Tell me if I made any glaring spelling errors, I have this vague nagging feeling I'm making an embarrassing mistake over and over again. I'm sometimes having trouble with too/to and the like. Not a native English speaker so I'm having a glorious lack of experience.


	2. Chapter 2: Unison

I've had this weird itch to write an AU high-school fanfic about GLaDOS and Chell, and maybe Wheatie, but that is just silly. Who calls their kid GLaDOS?

_01_

_Chapter: Unison_

XxXxX

It had crossed her mind countless times to just give up and return to Aperture, it started to look brighter then futureless situation she had been in by the day, but being dragged back by two vaguely humanoid characters happily chirping away at her in their own little language certainly hadn't been one of her imagined possibilities. Sadly, after she had spent so much time in the technological maze, she couldn't even say she was very surprised anymore, these things just seemed to happen whenever Aperture Science was involved.

It didn't lessen the fact that she was completely pissed off about it though.

She should have suspected the miserable pile of wires and metal would break her promise and drag her back eventually, or kill her. But at the time, their final moment together, she had sounded so… sincere, it had been so easy to trust her even though she hadn't fully understood what she had meant or what her motives had been.

As she was dragged back by the apparently very chatty robots she soothed herself with the thought that perhaps it was for she best. If she was rational, which was currently very hard, she had to admit that things hadn't looked very bright out there in the traitorously beautiful golden fields. Food was scarce, the only edible things she encountered were different kind of plants who had somehow found their way into the enormous field of wheat. Patches of green were spread throughout the endless yellow and she had wondered if it meant the wheat hadn't been planted there by human hands. With all the time in the world to think things through she figured that maybe, after whatever caused humans to cease to exist around here, the wheat had managed to become the dominant species in the area, perhaps through human biogenetics that made plants grow quicker and stronger.

The multitude of the yellow grass certainly made things hard for her, as sources of food were few and far in between. And then there was the cube hindering her progress.

Dragging it around had taken a lot from her, especially through the towering wheat. She endlessly wondered why she didn't just leave it right there and be finally able to freely move through the dense yellow forest, maybe then she could finally find a day's worth of food and not go hungry and exhausted into the night. She suspected the reason she was still tagging the thing along had been some careful constructed psychological test from her former tormenter, a memento, if you will, to tell her who held the final word in their battle.

First she had made her dependent on the thing, telling over and over again about its value, for progression as well as emotional, and then, when it seemed it was the only thing aiding her lonely existence within the walls of Aperture, forced her to kill it. It's like giving a child a toy, tell them how special it is and force them to throw it away.

And then she had given it back, to torment her, and maybe even be fatal if she hadn't been intercepted by these two menaces. Then it would still have been Aperture Science, and ultimately its queen, who had been responsible for her end.

But she'd been dammed to leave the thing behind, she had rather died trying than give up. She would not give her the satisfaction. Never.

Not that it mattered anymore now anyway, as the she could see the shed in the distance, and the cube was still where she had been ambushed, which must be pretty far away by now. She had stopped trying to break free, as the iron grips on both her wrists would not budge even an inch. The robots walking on one of her sides each, forcing her to awkwardly walk along with them.

Perhaps being captured like this was the best chance for her survival, up until now her pride had been too strong to get her to return with her tail between her legs, begging GLaDOS to let her in. Oh no, she would never beg her for something. She would keep what little dignity she had left, though being pulled along like this wasn't very dignifying in any way.

"I hope you two know you're now responsible for any possible torture I'm about to be put through" She reminded them, wondering if they actually understood her.

They happily chimed in unison.

If they understood her they were very good at hiding it. One of them, the slightly longer one, let go of her wrist and cheerfully dashed towards the door, plugging one of its hands into an appearing dashboard.

If she ever got her hands on them, even their expressionless features seemed…. Annoyingly goofy somehow.

The door creaked and opened, the longer robot let out an happy sound of accomplishment and turned around to wave excessively. The rounder one returned the gesture, throwing both arms into the air with a mechanical swing.

And Chell made a run for it.

With no cube dragging her down she reasoned she must have a pretty impressive speed for someone who was practically starved.

Sadly artificial legs won from exhausted biological ones and even before she was completely surrounded by wheat something tackled her, effectively causing her to collapse towards the ground. Before her faced met the sandy ground she was desperately trying to get up again but a heavy weight on her back pushing her down again and a triumphant sound coming from the same direction told her it was futile. She felt her ankles being grabbed and suddenly she was dragged through the sharp wheat. Kicking and screaming she tried holding on to anything remotely strong but she ended up with hands filled with wheat and covered in cuts.

She heard the things giggle in their own metallic way.

Was this some kind of game for them?

She screamed every insult she could imagine, though she didn't feel very creative in this situation. She told them they were more messed up than GLaDOS, and at the name she got a very excited, almost nervous, loud vocal response from the two.

The longer robot slowed down a bit and found a walking spot about next to where Chell was attempting to keep her face from touching the ground as she struggled against the grip of the other one. It made a sound, asking for her attention. Chell turned her head to look at her eyed captor, glaring as much as she could. And then it waved her enthusiastically, closing her eyelid slightly in an artificial attempt to smile.

Chell lashed out to it with her arms, but the blasted thing jumped aside, a childlike amusement evident its movement. Sick thing.

Chell yelled at it as it caught up with its partner.

And they increased their walking speed.

It seemed she and the robots were on entirely different wavelengths when it concerned the facility and anything in it. The one holding her ankles dragged her into the now open door of the little shack, and after the three of them were inside the door closed. She felt the grip on her ankles disappear and instead one of her wrists was grabbed again. She slowly got up from her position on the floor, just in time to watch the two excitedly high-five each other, this time the shorter one careful not to let go of her wrist.

"I'm glad you're so happy" She told them, forcing every ounce of sarcasm she could muster into her voice. In response their stared up at her with their single big circular eyes, letting out high pitched enthusiastic noises. Even their artificially body language made it obvious they were proud. She would have laughed if she wasn't so angry about the whole ordeal.

The lift announced it had reached their designated floor and with a familiar 'bing' it opened. The two, now both holding a wrist of hers, guided her into the just as familiar room. Briefly, they reminded Chell of two very enthusiastic children dragging their mother over to and ice-cream stand.

The anything but motherly figure hanging from the celling she was lead towards quickly distracted her. Her room hadn't changed, not surprising the ceiling fan didn't seem to enjoy any sort of change very much. The circular room still held the same glow, the walls made up of the gray bare panels she had often hated very much in complicated test chambers. All in all it was very depressing, the only color which wasn't in a shade of black or white seemed to be the bright yellow optic staring in her direction.

"Hello, _Chell_" The voice alone was enough to break something within her.

"_What!__"_ She spat back, hate lacing her voice. Almost on instinct she he felt uncontrollable anger rise within her.

"I see you have finally found your voice"

Shit.

XxXx

One knows one is tired when one starts writing 'fears' as 'virs' and 'for' as 'voor'

Also, does someone know how to fix those _italic_ things? They glue together and it just looks stupid.

Please tell me your thoughts, or any suggestions. And I'd like to humbly thank the people who have given me reviews, and a nod to the people pointing out my silly mistakes. Comments help, really. Review.


	3. Chapter 3: Light

Do not worry, pony lover. I shall not write a AU High school fic. I just find the thought of GLaDOS going to classes endlessly amusing. I bet she was really good at it, and made sure everyone knew she was, for that matter. Chell probably sucked.

_02_

_Chapter: Light_

Shit.

In her rage she had completely forgotten she was supposed to hide the one thing that she had refused to let the A.I control. This was one of the reasons she had made it a priority to hold her temperament in check during the many test, she was reckless whenever anger overtook her.

"You know" GLaDOS started mockingly. "If you had done that before we could have prevented _a__lot_ of trouble. You could have just told me what it was you wanted, instead of _destroying_me" GLaDOS made it sound as angry and guilt inducing as possible. Already she felt so much more alive, the trill of a challenge winning from her fears and anger at the girl's' betrayal. She would never admit it, but in an unexplainable way she was _enjoying_ their battle. Only if she was on the winning hand of course, like she was now.

Chell, cursing herself for her mistake, stared at the ground. Feeling miserable as she was she didn't feel like talking anymore, or know of anything intelligent to say for that matter.

"Oh come on! I _know_ you can speak now, no need in hiding it anymore." Her voice was slightly rushed and less controlled as the A.I certainly didn't feel in the mood for this kind of petty behavior, she was enough on edge as it was. Why did the girl always have to be so difficult, it was like the lunatic made it a priority.

Luckily her words seemed to have effect. Chell moved her head up and let her eyes meet the single yellow one, evoking a shiver from both sides albeit different in kind.

Determined, Chell glared into the optic, daring the machine to do something. She'd never give up, and she reminded herself she'd rather die fighting than ask for mercy.

"Okay then" She started carefully, forcing her tone to sound calm, though she herself detected even the obvious tremor. The A.I didn't respond, hanging icily still in the air. "What do you want from me?" She added, mumbling stubbornly. Conversing with her tormenter felt like giving in.

She got distracted by a low sarcastic snicker, but it didn't sound as convincing as the never ending streams of insults she had endured. It was too forced, too fake.

"I'm _glad_you asked" The machine spoke in the same mocking tone. She didn't like how hard she had to work to keep her voice on relatively normal levels.

"I'm about to start a new experiment" GLaDOS continued, making the final word sound as gleeful as possible. She was rewarded with a look of utter shock and horror. "I see you remember our previous experiments. Good."

This evoked a reaction within the former test subject. "But you let me go!" She nearly screamed. "You said I could go. You lied to me!" She blinked as realized just how stupid that sounded. "Of course you'd like" she added angrily, crossing her arms. It struck her that she had regained arm movement and looked to the side to find her two mischievous captors leaning against the wall of the circular room, watching the unfolding spectacle intriguingly.

"Now, now. You shouldn't make any assumptions. I didn't lie to you." The A.I replied in a lecturing tone "At least not when I let you go. When I put you in that elevator I had every intention of never letting you back in again. I was glad to see you go. Sadly… recent events changed that fact."

Chell opened her mouth, no doubt about to question about the recent events, or just shout some more in general, but GLaDOS quickly continued, not feeling like explaining.

"Besides, it's not like you were faring exceptionally well out there. I'd be embarrassing myself if I'd make any more comments about your weight. They wouldn't hold any ground anymore, you look emaciated." This time she didn't have to force the right emotion into her voice. She was overjoyed that Chell apparently survived better in here than in the girl's long desired 'outside'. "I suppose you only really excel in testing" Her head moved a little closer to the girl, who put a step backwards. "Only a little, though" Her amused tone had an effect on Chell, who seemed to have a hard time controlling herself.

"Well, you could have waited a little longer and I'd be out of your way forever" She shot back, suddenly wondering why she had ever even considered preferring returning over starving. "If you had given me a little more time I would have died on my own" Her eyes widened a little.

"Is that it? You couldn't deal with me dying from something other than your hands, so you brought me back here? To try and get me killed by something else then malnutrition?" She realized her feelings of hunger and thirst had already faded, just like last time she was here, it seemed that whatever was being pumped through the air was already taking care of that, the cuts on her were starting to close too.

"You were dying?" That was not the response the girl had been expecting, especially not with the badly masked concern woven through it.

"You released me in a never ending field of _wheat._ After lacking the need to eat and drink for such a long time I suddenly had to drink from muddy puddles and spend hours trying to find something edible. Not to mention the cube you forced me to drag along"

"I never forc-"The slightly surprised machine started, but was brutally interrupted.

"YES you did!" Chell screamed. "You _knew_I'd take it with me, you knew I wouldn't be able to leave it and you knew it would drag me down!" Chell blurted out, breathing heavily. The prolonged stress of the constant pressure of death and the sudden reunion with her nightmare were too much for her self-control.

GLaDOS, genuinely startled by the girl's sudden outburst, didn't know how to respond. Maybe she preferred the girl as she used to be, mute. It wasn't even true what she was yelling, not entirely.

Chell, who took the robots silence as confirmation, took the opportunity. "And I'm not testing anymore" She considered walking away but with every door locked she'd look silly in the circular room.

"I'm happy to hear you will stay forever then, seeing as you are unable to die from natural causes, like dehydration, starvation or age, in here." The angry look she received told her Chell hadn't thought of this. "And your lunacy is surfacing again. If you had paid attention, which you didn't, you would have noticed I never mentioned the word 'test', I used the word 'experiment'.

Chells only reply was raising an eyebrow.

"I have decided to conduct an experiment" GLaDOS started formally. "In order to advance science on a higher level I have decided to experience human physics first hand" She had to be discreet about it. "I will place myself in an artificially created human body, and I need you to monitor my transfer" She noticed the girls mouth was open.

"No..." Chell whispered. Up until now she had thought nothing would surprise her anymore but imagining GLaDOS with human anatomy was somehow extremely terrifying. Then something struck her. "Wait, can't you just get your robots to... monitor you?" She turned towards the two, who sprung to attention as they suddenly became the point of interest, half loathing Chell admitted that her quick thinking and recovery abilities stemmed from excessive testing.

"No."

"What? Why not?"

"Blue and Orange are irresponsible. They would mess it up. I do not want them near me while I am in such a state" From the back of the room two sad chirps could be heard. Chell silently cursed them, they had understood her perfectly well out in the wheat, it seemed.

"Blue and- you named them?"

"Those are not names, they are simply ways to address them individually."

Chell didn't feel like arguing that naming them was practically the same.

"Well then, let's start" GLaDOS feared that if she didn't make the plunge now she wouldn't be able to do it later, and it had the benefit of not giving Chell any more time to talk. Her optic flickered as she activated the necessary processes for the rashest decision in her long life. Giving both Chell and herself no time to react.

"_Warning,__central__core__transfer__initiated__" _The centuries old male voice boomed over the speakers, making Chell jump in surprise. She watched in silence, like she had done so many times before, as GLaDOS again took control over her life. Other people perhaps would have done something, yelled complains, find an emergency exit, or button, but she simply stared as the elevator doors opened and she slowly entered after GLaDOS told her to.

She waited in the darkness as the elevator moved her deeper within the facility, until the doors opened and a bright white light made her cover her eyes as she carefully entered the room.

The room reminded her of the room she had woken up in so many years ago, when she heard GLaDOS's voice for the first time, but this one was bigger, and it had doors. It held the same eerie glow the test chambers had. On the side was a desk, drawers on the side and a chair in front of it, the rest of the interior was lost on her as she was drawn to the white pod like bed taking up most of the space. It was covered with a glass like chassis, no doubt air locked. Inside it was a body, resembling that of a female human in every way but nonetheless unmistakably artificial. The skin was paler than natural for a human, her shoulder length hair too was a tone of broken white that you didn't find in humans. She was wearing something reminiscent of a white hospital gown, but with a slight feminine shape in it and actual buttons on the top.

It occurred to Chell that the proportions looked absolutely perfect in every possible way, star models would be jealous. She hadn't expected any less, either GLaDOS or former Aperture Science employees had designed it and neither of them were types that settled for something less than perfect very easily. Aperture had been known for its exaggerated and grand attitude so a perfectly sculpted body would only be appropriate. GLaDOS was… well just being herself if she had created it.

Chell only noticed that she had walked closer to the pod and put her hand on the glass after the machine began to vibrate and hum softly, breaking the silence. She watched in anticipation until she noted the eyelids began to stir, holding her breath as she waited for the eyes to open. Suddenly the glass case covering the body shook and opened, Chell watched it sliding into the opposite side of the pod that she was standing on.

She focused her eyes back towards the android and gasped as she realized her own gaze was met by another. Yellow eyes stared back into her own gray ones. She watched as consciousness slowly poured into the softly glowing orbs. They held an expression she had never though GLaDOS could have, an emotion she didn't carry.

Her mind wasn't allowing her to connect the meaning of the words 'GLaDOS' and 'Innocence' to each other but it was the only fitting description she could think of. The eyes were wide open, not scared but… overwhelmed, so much to progress. The yellow pools carried something soft, vulnerability emitting from them.

The monster who had tortured her for so long looked beautiful like this.

"Hey" She whispered softly as she sat down on the spacious bed. Briefly it occurred to her that she could hurt the now exposed queen of Aperture, but it was quickly forgotten as said queen slowly blinked.

"Are you alright?"

XxXxX

And no, of course she's not actually going to be innocent. Babies look innocent to, until they're older. She learns quickly.

Also, Chell doesn't have to eat drink and sleep in Aperture, some sort of highly advanced complicated stuff, Nano bots, cryo status or whatever is preventing it. She doesn't age either. Though I suppose that while her body might not necessary need sleep her mind certainly could use some. You'd be going nuts if you'd be awake forever. Ugh.


End file.
